Desert groundwater at stake as Joshua Tree pumping plan moves forward

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The easternmost iron ore pit in the former Kaiser Steel mine at Eagle Mountain in California’s Mojave Desert is seen in this Aug. 27, 1997, file photo. The Eagle Crest Energy Co. plans to pump water to the site, and release it to make electricity during peak energy use times.

Federal land managers have advanced plans for a $1.4 billion energy-storage project in which desert groundwater would be pumped to high-elevation reservoirs near Joshua Tree National Park and then released downhill to generate electricity.

Late last week, the Bureau of Land Management found that using 1,150 acres of public land — mainly for the project’s power and water lines — would not cause significant harm to the environment. The acreage stretches between Interstate 10 and the national park. The finding moves the project, which was licensed by federal energy officials in 2014, into a 30 day period to allow for official protests.

The Eagle Mountain Hydroelectric Project would use two defunct Kaiser Steel iron ore pits to hold water pumped from wells on the desert floor about 15 miles away. These are the same Eagle Mountain mine pits where developers had sought to build the world’s largest landfill.

Even though the pumps would use more electricity than the system would create, Santa Monica-based Eagle Crest Energy plans to take advantage of cheaper electricity that’s abundant during off-peak times for pumping water, and later release the water downhill to run the generators during high-use times, such as in the evenings when electricity is more valuable.

Such energy-storage systems could help California use a glut of solar energy produced in late mornings and early afternoons. This glut has forced some solar plants to be turned off during peak production times, because supply exceeds demand.

The Eagle Mountain project would store enough electricity to power about 900,000 houses, according to the BLM.

Company officials were pleased with the decision.

“We welcome the Bureau of Land Management’s findings and look forward to continuing to work with the BLM and other agencies to bring this project to fruition and eliminate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions and assist California in meeting its renewable energy goals,” Eagle Crest Energy President Steve Lowe said in a statement.

Despite the BLM decision, the project still may be challenged by environmentalists.

The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity is considering filing an official protest to the BLM’s finding, said Ileene Anderson, a biologist for the center. Such protests must be submitted before lawsuits can be filed.

The center, as well as the National Parks Conservation Association, oppose the project, arguing its water use could deplete an aquifer that goes under the park and may cause springs important to wildlife to dry up.

“Water is the most precious thing in the desert,” said David Lamfrom of the conservation association. “To use tens of thousands of acre-feet from the aquifer just doesn’t make sense.”

Filling the plant would require about 24,000 acre-feet of water — nearly 8 billion gallons — over three to four years, company officials have said. They contend that water-level drops in the aquifer would not be harmful.

The project would take away and compromise habitat needed by desert tortoises, bighorn sheep, and golden eagles, among other wildlife, as well as crowd the park with large-scale industrial use, he said.

The Eagle Mine land was part of the original Joshua Tree National Monument when it was established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. But in 1950, it was among 265,000 acres removed from the original 825,000 acres to allow for mining and subdivisions. This included land for the Kaiser Steel iron mine that produced ore needed for shipbuilding and other industries.

The pump-storage project is latest conservation fight in the area.

After the iron mines closed in 1983, a plan emerged to turn the open pits and surrounding canyons into the world’s largest garbage dump. As much as 20,000 tons of trash per day would have been delivered by rail from Los Angeles County and buried in mine pits and surrounding canyons.

That 25-year battle ended in 2013 when the landfill proposal was withdrawn. The project’s developers had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two years earlier. Eagle Crest Energy acquired the mine areas in 2015.

Lamfrom argues that public land should be returned to the park as intended by President Roosevelt.

In fact last year, the National Park Service found that private and public lands in the Eagle Mountain area would be suitable for Joshua Tree, which became a national park in 1994.

David Danelski is an investigative and environmental reporter for The Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California. He has been with the newspaper since 1990 and has previously covered crime, transportation and city government. He is married to Lorrie Cobain, a teacher and staff development specialist for the Riverside Unified School District. The couple has one adult daughter, Rosemary. who lives in New York City.